Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary Life
Swan Dive
Picture in your mind of a man standing on the edge of a swimming pool
about to dive. Standing beside him is his encouraging wife, instructing him
on diving technique. The man has no idea has no idea what is about to happen
to him.
I enjoy swimming, but I'm not much on diving. As long as I can remember
I was I enjoyed walking out into the water as the preferred way of starting
to swim. Jumping out of planes didn't frighten me, jumping off a board or the
side of a pool did.
Years ago, when my wife and I were still very recently married we lived
in an apartment building that had a pool. She helped me to work up my courage
and enthusiasm and I was going to attempt diving into the pool from the side.
We discussed and reviewed the technique several times. She demonstrated
the dive repeatedly with ease. With trepidation, I got ready as she talked me
into position. I worked up the nerve and lept forward. While I was in the
air, Kathy made some encouraging remark and without thinking I tried to turn
to tell her I didn't understand what she was saying. I hit the water in a
twisted belly flop, mid word and thought I was going to drown.
Kathy didn't know whether to be concerned about me or to laugh because
she couldn't believe I would try to turn around and talk in mid dive. In the
end, I think it was concerned laughter. A perfect form swan dive it was not.
That was the end of my short and less than illustrious career as a diver.
Turning back was not a wise plan.
God warns His people to remember things of their past, but not to turn
back to the past and dwell in it.
With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot,
saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you
will be swept away when the city is punished." When he hesitated, the men
grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led
them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. As soon as
they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't
look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or
you will be swept away!"
Genesis 19:15-17 NIV
Lot's wife couldn't resist turning back to her past and paid the price.
Freedom and salvation were within her grasp, but she chose to not pay
attention.
By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen
over the land. Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and
Gomorrah--from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities
and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities--and also
the vegetation in the land. But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a
pillar of salt. Genesis 19:23-26 NIV
The Apostle Paul writes:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider
loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss
compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain
Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes
from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness
that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of
his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming
like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from
the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been
made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus
took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold
of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward
what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win ! the prize for which God
has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:7-14 NIV
Once you accept Jesus as your savior, you are a new creation in Christ.
Refuse to be held back in your faith walk by not being drawn back into your
old life or being held in bondage to past mistakes.
Let the Lord help you forgive and let go of the past hurts and
mistakes. Let Him free you of your bondage to bitterness and cynicism.
There will be many people who will be delighted to remind you of who
you were and of all your past mistakes. They will be skeptical of your
conversion. Let them be, that's their issue not yours.
Grow as the new creation God has made and let the past go.
Until next time, press on in your faith walk and refuse to be held back
by the past
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)!
Kevin
YOU ARE
Once you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are
cared for.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7 NIV
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant.
You have value in the eyes of God so great that it was worth dying for. You
are a blessing to the world.
Did you know God's forgiveness and unconditional love is available for
anyone who asks?
If you haven't made the decision to accept Christ as Lord
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